Walter Broes
Enlightened Member
I have a very recent Newark Street X175, a black one. It came the way the sunbursts are, wood bridge and harp tailpiece.
Here's what I've done to it so far, to make it resemble what I'm used to (my old ones) more, and to make it a practical stage guitar :
-put a tune-a-matic bride saddle on the existing bridge base. My luthier buddy worked on the base to make it fit the guitar's top better, and I put two small screws through it to anchor it to the guitar's top. It's not a solid top vintage D'Angelico, I don't play super heavy strings, and bend quite a bit, and this helps keep the guitar in tune and withstand transport. The bridge is a wireless ABR-1 from Philadelphia Luthier, and I put three nylon saddles in it for the plain strings.
-I put a USA Guild Bigsby on it I got from the guy that's been selling the remaining New Hartford stock on Ebay.
-I replaced the pickups with a pair of vintage Franz pickups I still had in my parts box. Lucky ebay find many years ago.
-I had my luthier friend move the back pickup to where it is on an old X175 : the Newark Street guitars have the lead pickup sitting closer to the neck than on the vintage guitars. It makes for a slightly fatter "lead pickup by itself" tone, but it was too mellow sounding for me, I'm in the middle switch position a lot, and that didn't have the bite and spank I'm used to.
-in the "cosmetics" department, I put four stove top knobs on it, and darkened the unusually light fingerboard and bridge base with some ebony stain from Stew Mac.
What I'm still planning to do :
-Put a switchcraft switch in it (the cheap one in it now rattles), CTS pots, one push pull for phase.
-Make a new pickguard for it, the stock one doesn't fit the new pickup placement, there's a gap, and I'll probably do a multi-layered black one again so I can have it engraved with my "WB" logo.
Here's what I've done to it so far, to make it resemble what I'm used to (my old ones) more, and to make it a practical stage guitar :
-put a tune-a-matic bride saddle on the existing bridge base. My luthier buddy worked on the base to make it fit the guitar's top better, and I put two small screws through it to anchor it to the guitar's top. It's not a solid top vintage D'Angelico, I don't play super heavy strings, and bend quite a bit, and this helps keep the guitar in tune and withstand transport. The bridge is a wireless ABR-1 from Philadelphia Luthier, and I put three nylon saddles in it for the plain strings.
-I put a USA Guild Bigsby on it I got from the guy that's been selling the remaining New Hartford stock on Ebay.
-I replaced the pickups with a pair of vintage Franz pickups I still had in my parts box. Lucky ebay find many years ago.
-I had my luthier friend move the back pickup to where it is on an old X175 : the Newark Street guitars have the lead pickup sitting closer to the neck than on the vintage guitars. It makes for a slightly fatter "lead pickup by itself" tone, but it was too mellow sounding for me, I'm in the middle switch position a lot, and that didn't have the bite and spank I'm used to.
-in the "cosmetics" department, I put four stove top knobs on it, and darkened the unusually light fingerboard and bridge base with some ebony stain from Stew Mac.
What I'm still planning to do :
-Put a switchcraft switch in it (the cheap one in it now rattles), CTS pots, one push pull for phase.
-Make a new pickguard for it, the stock one doesn't fit the new pickup placement, there's a gap, and I'll probably do a multi-layered black one again so I can have it engraved with my "WB" logo.